Glass (L) - Encylopedia Of Antiques

LAMPS: Although glass lamps may have been produced in some of the 18th century glass-works , there is no existing example of their product. Until the end of the first quarter of the 19th century, lighting in the home was chiefly by means of metal lamps. Soon after starting operations, the New England Glass Works, Cambridge, and the Boston and Sandwich Glass Company began making glass lamps which became at once very popular, gradually displacing the metal lamps and soon becoming an important branch of the glass industry.

Lamp bases were among the earliest of pressed objects, and the tops were more often blown and ornamented by cutting and engraving. They were made in a variety of shapes and sizes, of clear and colored glass, at first with burners for whale oil, then the flat wick burners for kerosene, and glass lamps maintained leadership for home lighting from that time until the introduction of electric lighting. See PART 5.
LAMPS.

LANCASTER (New York) GLASS WORKS: In 1849. a group of Pittsburgh work
men started a factory here. A variety of bottles and flasks for liquor, medicines and perfumes in amber, aquamarine, green and clear glass was the chief product. One of their flasks, "Success to the Railroad," is considered to be the chief Lancaster prize. They also made a Masonic flask. The plant was operated under various names until in 1881 it became known as the Lancaster Cooperative Glass Works, Limited.

LIBBEY GLASS COMPANY (Toledo, Ohio) This company, the successor to the New England Glass Company (q.v.), has brought the art of cutting glass to the highest state of perfection. Libbey cut glass surpasses in mechanical and artistic qualities the best wares of a similar nature produced elsewhere, and its fabrications are world-famous for the depth and richness of their designs, their purity of color and their prismatic brilliancy.

LIGHTING: See LAMPS above, also LAMPS and LIGHTS in PART 5.

LOOKING-GLASSES: See GLASS, Mirror, also MIRRORS, PART 1.

LOUISVILLE (Kentucky) GLASS WORKS: Succeeded the Kentucky Glass Works in 1856, and for a few years was successful. After undergoing several changes in name, the business was finally abandoned, owing to the competition of Pittsburgh Glass Works and of the newly opened glass factories in the naturalgas belt in Ohio. Their scroll flask and their fluted flask are both attractive, but the fluted flask is the more rare. Some of these are marked and they are made in a wide range of colors: amber, brown, sapphire blue, olive and clear glass among them.

LOW COUNTRIES GLASS: In and around Antwerp, Brussels and Liege the making of glass during the 15th and 16th centuries seems to have been attended with greater success than in many other parts of Europe. Glass after the style of the Venetian product, although rather heavier, was made. England imported from Antwerp a considerable amount of glass in the 17th century and the export trade to other countries from this center was large. For a time there was an active rivalry between the glass-makers of Antwerp and Amsterdam. During the 17th and 18th centuries, engraving on glass with a diamond was carried to a high state of perfection, especially on the roemer (q.v.) in Holland, and much glass was sent from England to be so engraved. Immense quantities of glass were made at Liege in the 18th century in great variety and of excellent quality.

LYON (JAMES B.) & COMPANY: In 1852, this company purchased the old O'Hara Glass Works at Pittsburgh and greatly enlarged them and soon became one of the foremost producers in this country. It was the first to adopt pressed glass as its main line of production. Deming Jarves of Sandwich considered Lyon glass as the exemplification of all that was best in the industry. The Lyon Company received many medals and other honors for superiority in pressed glassware. The house held a foremost rank until 1886.